There may be even those who have made themselves familiar with the teachings, yet who, because of the violence of the disease causing death, may be mentally unable to withstand illusions. For such, also, this instruction is absolutely necessary.
Again [there are those] who, although previously familiar with the teachings, have become liable to pass into the miserable states of existence, owing to breach of vows or failure to perform essential obligations honestly. To them, this [instruction] is indispensable.
If the first stage of the Bardo hath been taken by the forelock, that is best. But if not, by application of this distinct recalling [to the deceased], while in the second stage of the Bardo, his intellect is awakened and attaineth liberation.
While on the second stage of the Bardo, one's body is of the nature of that called the shining illusory-body.[1]
Not knowing whether [he be] dead or not, [a state of] lucidity cometh [to the deceased].[2] If the instructions be successfully applied to the deceased while he is in that state, then, by the meeting of the Mother-Reality and the Offspring-Reality,[3] karma controlleth not.[4] Like the sun's rays, for example, dispelling the darkness, the Clear Light on the Path dispelleth the power of karma.
- ↑ Text: dag-pahi-sgyu-lus (pron. tag-pay-gyu-lü): 'pure (or shining) illusory body': Skt. māyā-rūpa. This is the ethereal counterpart of the physical body of the earth-plane, the 'astral-body' of Theosophy.
- ↑ With the departure of the consciousness-principle from the human body there comes a psychic thrill which gives way to a state of lucidity.
- ↑ Text: Chös-nyia-ma-bu: Skt. Dharma Mātri Putra: 'Mother and Offspring Reality (or Truth).' The Offspring-Truth is that realized in this world through practising deep meditation (Skt. dhyāna). The Mother-Truth is the Primal or Fundamental Truth, experienced only after death whilst the Knower is in the Bardo state of equilibrium, ere karmic propensities have erupted into activity. What a photograph is compared to the object photographed, the Offspring-Reality is to the Mother-Reality.
- ↑ Lit., ' karma is unable to turn the mouth or head', the figure implied being that of a rider controlling a horse with a bridle and bit. In the Tantra of the Great Liberation, there is this similar passage: 'The man blinded by the darkness of ignorance, the fool caught in the meshes of his actions, and the illiterate man, by listening to this Great Tantra, are released from the bonds of karma' (cf. Tantra of the Great Liberation, line 205, as edited by Arthur Avalon, London, 1913, p. 359).
